Homemade croutons rock! I love them on a salad or in soups or just to snack on. Also, when recipes call for bread crumbs, I like make my own....much better than storebought.
Bread that is too stale to eat is perfect to use. I have occasionally gotten bread that was a couple of days old for a fraction of what it cost fresh, from my baker friend. If you don't have access to home-made bread, just about any bread will serve the purpose. You can also make all kinds of seasoned crumbs, just by seasoning with herbs and spices. Try adding a little pesto...that makes amazing bread crumbs.
Bread that is too stale to eat is perfect to use. I have occasionally gotten bread that was a couple of days old for a fraction of what it cost fresh, from my baker friend. If you don't have access to home-made bread, just about any bread will serve the purpose. You can also make all kinds of seasoned crumbs, just by seasoning with herbs and spices. Try adding a little pesto...that makes amazing bread crumbs.
What to do:
I take the bread and cut into pieces about the size of sugar cubes, then saute in a just little butter (or olive oil, depends on the mood, you know) and garlic. Sprinkle with a bit of sea salt. Be sure that you toss frequently while sauteeing, so that your seasonings permeate the bread cubes.
After they are nice and coated and just beginning to turn brownish, I put them on a cookie sheet and bake at 200 degrees in the oven until completely toasty. How long that takes depends on how much butter you used and how saturated they were. Just stir them a couple of times and don't let them get too hard. This step is not absolutely necessary for croutons but really kicks up the breadcrumb making process.
The result of this method will not be dry like store bought crumbs, but boy! are they tasty. Use your hands to crumble up the bread cubes, once they are cool enough to handle...that is the fun part. Even though not fine crumbs, they give recipes a kind of rustic character. If you want them finer, use the blender. Of course, you don't crumble them if you are going to use them as croutons.
Store crumbs or croutons in an airtight container. If you want to make them ahead or in quantity, store container in freezer. I don't recommend long term storage (more than a couple of days) for croutons, unless you are willing to retoast them before you use them, but the crumbs will do fine, since you can add them straight from the freezer to your recipes.
Since stale bread works so much better, sometimes when I am making croutons (crumbs) to store, I will buy a loaf of whatever bread I want to use, take it home and leave it sitting on the counter, open to the air, for a day. It gets stale pretty quickly that way. Sounds like a waste of a good loaf of bread, but an 8 oz container of bread crumbs costs $1.89 or more and I can get twice that volume from a loaf of bread. So, unless the bread costs more than $3.78 I am way ahead.
